Okay, It took a while but i managed using nero. I burned a cd with ghost and pq magic on it plus the panasonic usb 2.0 driver.But, on starting it uses the Caldera Dos (as expected). I pressed F8 to go through it step by step and after saying something like the detection of my usb controllers it stops with HIDEVICE A:\ somethin'.So, I tried to let it run through the routine all by itself and it seemed that it detected the external HDD drives. Although i could barely see that as i could not stop it via the BREAK button. and then again the system stops.Any idea on how to walk through the start up routine or what i might do wrong?

Based on the case of Piikea's Western Digital external HDD troubles, this looks like another perfect candidate for NightOwl'sPanasonic Universal USB Drive routine - and I would strongly suggest using the v2.20 version

Okay, It took a while but i managed using nero. I burned a cd with ghost and pq magic on it plus the panasonic usb 2.0 driver.

You will have to be more step-by-step detailed in the 'how I did it' in order to see what may be wrong. It's the little details that usually trip us up.

And, you have to take the time to write down the error messages and report them 'exactly' if you hope we might have a chance at figuring out what's wrong without sitting next to you watching your computer!

I don't know what to do with:

Quote:

it stops with HIDEVICE A:\ somethin'

Maybe, .... try 'somethin' !

Are you trying to create a bootable CD from a floppy boot disk that works successfully when booting from the floppy drive?

Okay, sorry about that I guess it all frustrates me so much that I could simply not bear to write details at 2 am....

What I did was following the manual you referred to earlier. I also put on that disk the Panasonic USB driver 2.20 as described. Below you will find all details on that matter.I have created the bootable CD using Nero (worked fine).

When I put in the CD I press F8 after I started from CD I get into the step by step routine. When I keep pressing one of the options per step (n,y,r) it goes fine to some point.Then it ends mostly after the DPMS stuff with:[Dr-Dos] A:\> and a blinking cursor. I cannot type anything with my cordless keyboard. Neither can I press the break button in order to see whether or not the usb driver recognized my external HDD.2 questions:1.) Could it be the keyboard by any chance?2.) Why do I need the IBMDOS and IBMBIO stuff?Is the command.com not enough?

So, sorry I cannot really give you a specified error message as it at one point simply stops and the next time I restart it stops somewhere else. Unfortunately I do not have a wired keyboard. However, it should work I guess as in the XP recovery console, which also uses DOS stuff the keyboard works. I hope you can help again.

Below you will find some more details on my bootable CD and PC±1.) Here is my configuration with drives etc.:Floppy on a:\internal HDD with XP Home on c:\ and two more partitions on d:\ and e:\ (all are NTFS)CD-Rom Drive on z:\Emulated CD on y:\

external WD 250GB with 3 partitions:h:\ (Fat32 but I want to make it NTFS)i:\ and j:\ (both are NTFS)This is my USB external WD Media center (250GB) with 2 card reader slots and I would like to store my ghost image of my internal HDD.

[menu]menuitem = FROMCD, This computer was started from a GHOST bootable CD

[FROMCD][COMMON]DEVICE = usb\usbaspi.sys /e /v /wrem EVICE = usb\aspiohci.sys /int /allrem EVICE = usb\aspiuhci.sys /int /allrem :The following is an aspi mass storage driver for usb-connected HDD'srem :and compactflash memory cardsDEVICE = usb\di1000dd.sysDEVICE = oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001LASTDRIVE = Z----------------------------------------------------------3.) These are the files I have on my bootable cda.) All of these reside in the bootable image I created with the manual you gave meof course autoexec.bat and config.syshelp.batcommand.comedit.comformat.comaspi2dos.sysaspi4dos.sysaspi8dos.sysaspi8u2.sysaspicd.sysaspiohci.sysaspiuhci.sysbtcdrom.sysbtdosm.sysflashpt.sysdi1000dd.sysio.sysoakcdrom.sysusbaspi.sysmscdex.exemscdexnt.exeattrib.exechkdsk.exedebug.exeext.exeguest.exescandisk.exeformat.comrestart.comsys.comedit.comIBMBIO.comIBMDOS.comMOUSE.comMouse.iniscandisk.ini----------------------------------------------------------4.) I have added two directories to the disk:\pqmagic (all partition magic dos files)\ghost (here is the ghost.exe)----------------------------------------------------------

"... and a blinking cursor. I cannot type anything with my cordless keyboard. Neither can I press the break button in order to see whether or not the usb driver recognized my external HDD.

2 questions:1.) Could it be the keyboard by any chance?2.) Why do I need the IBMDOS and IBMBIO stuff?Is the command.com not enough?

So, sorry I cannot really give you a specified error message as it at one point simply stops and the next time I restart it stops somewhere else. Unfortunately I do not have a wired keyboard. However, it should work I guess as in the XP recovery console, which also uses DOS stuff the keyboard works. I hope you can help again..."

I would be very suspicious of the keyboard, and would certainly try to borrow a conventional model from a friend. Yet, then again, try one more time with this modified line:

DEVICE = usb\usbaspi.sys /e /v /w

/norst

Also, you might consider working from within Windows as illustrated below (the advantage being that, no matter what, you will have a detailed log when you return to Windows):

What I did was following the manual you referred to earlier. I also put on that disk the Panasonic USB driver 2.20 as described. Below you will find all details on that matter. I have created the bootable CD using Nero (worked fine).

1. Looking at the information you posted futher down after this quote from your last post regarding the *config.sys* and *autoexec.bat* files, I'm not sure I know what *manual* outline you are following--could you be specific, because I don't recognize the source of the batch files?

2. Did you create a bootable floppy with PC-DOS OS on it first, and then modify it with the files that you list later in your post--and did you then use that floppy in Nero to create the bootable data CD?

I'm going to use your posting details to try and re-create what you have done to see if I can find any problems and duplicate your issues. Will post the results later when I'm done.

In the first problem line above, the *usb\usbaspi.sys* is telling config.sys to look for *usbaspi.sys* in the subdirectory *usb*, but you have put *usbaspi.sys* in the 'root directory', and not in a subdirectory.

Also, unless you are booting from a USB floppy drive, and need to unplug it and plug-in a USB CD-ROM drive, the is no need for the */w* switch--which is a 'wait until I plug in the USb CD-ROM drive' switch before continuing to process the rest of the batch file.

The second problem line is the same issue of telling config.sys to look for the driver in a subdirectory.

[autoexec.bat]@echo off SET TZ=GHO-01:00 path=z:\;z:\ghost;z:\pqmagic MOUSE.COM

REM by NightOwl

LH \Mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /l:x /m:16 /v

Mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /l:z /m:16 /v

echo Loading...

Z:

CD \GHOST GHOST.EXE goto END

In your previous post, you said your optical drive is assigned drive letter Z: in WinXP. You also mention an 'emulated CD-drive' using Y:. Now, I assume the emulated CD-drive is not loaded when booting to DOS, so the only CD drive in DOS will be the one optical drive.

Based on the 'path=' statement in your autoexec.bat, I'm assuming you wish the drive letter to be Z: in DOS also. So you have to change the drive letter assignment switch in the 'mscdex.exe' line from 'l:x' to

'l:z'

.

A minor point, because DOS will ignor it, but the 'LH' (load high) command in front of the 'mscdex.exe' file has no effect unless you load a 'high memory manager' such as *himem.sys* first in config.sys.

And, because the Ghost program is going to be on the data portion of the CD which is accessed in DOS from the Z: drive, you need to change to that drive by using the 'Z:' command before using the 'CD \Ghost' (change directory) command line.

Okay, back from germany from the weekend.Installed my external HDD on another win98 PC also with the Panasonic driver. Worked great although it cost a lot effort to get there.

And that also gave me a fresh view on my own issues. But first things first:- I changed the files as you suggested. I saw the flaws with the directories (\usb) also. However, I did not try this CD on my home PC yet as I first wanted to see whether things were caused by my wireless keyboard.

- I tried the CD on a laptop in the weekend and guess what: It recognized my USB drive and even gave the indication on the transfer speed. And all typed commands after the DOS prompt worked out. So I figured out that if you burn a bootable CD with NERO it will use the CALDERA DOS which does obviously not recognize wireless keyboards.However, although the laptop recognized my external HDD there was no drive letter assignment. I thought that it might be due to the fact that the CD was customized for my own home PC and that's why the drive letters would not match. So I decided to first try again that same disc on my home PC (I did before but then the directories were set wrongly).

- But I was still wondering why the caldera DOS would always be used. I took a look in the NERO directory with the DOSBootimage file(Nightowl, you suggested to replace the DosBootimage file -

" placed a copy of my boot image file (bootcdp1.ima ) in the 'Nero' subdirectory along with Nero's re-named 'DOSBootimage.old.ima' file. I then renamed my boot image file (bootcdp1.ima) to 'DosBootimage.ima' . So, it looks like this now--screen shot."

- that's not I would put it). When you replace it Nero justs grants you (in the 'Select Boot Image' screen) to select from floppy. So, what I did is copying the contents of my Image - the one I will also put as an image to the bootable CD (without the \ghost and \pqmagic folder) to a floppy and just let Nero read it when creating the bootable disc. I am not able to send screen prints so I suggest that you include it in your description at http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/neroexpress6.html.

(Edited above link by NightOwl so it works!)

- After that I let it burn the CD and I put in the CD in my home PC and guess what it recognized the external HDD.

SO< I FINALLY MANAGED!!!!!

- Strange on that matter was, that the drive letters are not set right. my external HDD has drive letter C:\ and I have the Z:\ for my CD drive. So, I still have to figure that out. I also have the issue with the codepage as I need to have the dutch codepage but I have an idea on how to do that.

- So, what remains is the drive letter assignment. If you have any suggestions I would appreciate your help again.

Thanks already for all the help you provided until now. I really appreciate that.

Just a short update on my progress.........well progress regarding gathering of information as I did not quite manage to mount my NTFS drives.

Right now I am using a floppy with the necessary dos files (except the folders pqmagic and ghost). This is just for testing purpose and when that will work I am going to burn my bootable cd.

I used ntfsdos which should very well be able to mount all ntfs drives in read mode. That should do as I want to just read them and back them up to my external FAT32 drive.

So, at the command prompt I type ntfsdos and then it starts mounting. However, after the last drive is mounted I get and error message saying that there is no access to command.com system halted.This is strange as the command.com just resides on my floppy.

Basically the only drive that is recognized is the FAT32 partition of my external HDD. All other drives are NTFS and do not have any drive letters.When I try to use NTFSDOS I get a memory allocation error saying '....could not allocate memory...'. Then it says '...could not find command.com...system halted'. Strange, as the command.com is present and not hidden on the bootable floppy.

Any of your NTFS partitions will not be seen by the DOS OS--only FAT partitions will be seen and given a drive letter when you boot to DOS.

So if your external drive is the only FAT partition on your system, it will be C:

Ghost has the ability to *see* NTFS partitions in the Ghost DOS interface--but, not by drive letter. They will be identified as *1:1* for drive 1, partition 1, and *1:2* for drive 1, partition 2, etc., and *2:1* for drive 2, partition 1, etc. And Ghost can store a Ghost image to a NTFS partition. But once you exit Ghost back to DOS, you will still not see any NTFS partitions in DOS.

Quote:

So, at the command prompt I type ntfsdos and then it starts mounting. However, after the last drive is mounted I get and error message saying that there is no access to command.com system halted. This is strange as the command.com just resides on my floppy.

I've not played around with NTFSDOS, so I can't say much from experience with it...but, it is supposed to allow you to boot to DOS and read files on NTFS partitions and copy files from a NTFS partition to a FAT partition. But you will not be able to write any files to a NTFS partition.

If you want full access to NTFS partitions from a bootable CD, you should consider Bart's PE:

Based on what you've reported, I'm hoping that the problem you're reporting is due to a conflict of drive letter assignments--because your external HDD is C: in DOS, and your WinXP main partition is C: in NTFS--NTFSDOS may be *seeing* two C: drives when it trys to mount the partitions.

To see if that's true:

1. disconnect your USB HDD before booting and trying to run NTFSDOS--does that allow NTFSDOS to work okay?

2. Change the *motto hairu* driver line in config.sys from:

DEVICE=di1000dd.sys , to

DEVICE=di1000dd.sys /dh

The */dh* is a command line switch that tells the *motto hairu* driver to use as it's first drive letter, the letter *h*. But your two other NTFS partitions on the external USB HDD will still not be seen in DOS and assigned drive letters by DOS.

Does that allow NTFSDOS to run okay with the HDD hooked up?

Quote:

- But I was still wondering why the caldera DOS would always be used. I took a look in the NERO directory with the DOSBootimage file

(Nightowl, you suggested to replace the DosBootimage file -

I continue to be confused by your questions--you seem to be using several different outlines as to how to set up a bootable CD/DVD--and you are mixing and matching the instructions, but you are not changing the information to match the changed combination of DOS boot file command lines.

to 'replace the DosBootimage file in NeroExpress v6.xx ... with bootcdp1.ima...' by first re-naming DosBootimage.ima to DosBootimage.old.ima, and then re-naming bootcdp1.ima to DosBootimage.ima. But you state you only get caldera DOS (aka PC-Dos) each time you try to create a bootable CD.

Did you follow my Guide and create the *bootcdp1.ima* file? If you did, it does not have *caldera DOS*, but only MS-DOS!

So, I have to believe you are not actually following any one *guide* or outline from beginning to end--and you are ending up with a final result that fails because it does not have a consistent structure.

Another example--in your latest *autoexe.bat* and *config.sys* that you posted--you now have a new program listed:

Quote:

DRFAT32.exe /m:120 >NUL

DEVICE=drfat32.sys /x

What's the purpose of that program? Is that interferring with NTFSDOS and *command.com*?

1.) Regarding the codepage everything works fine now.2.) I saw some directory entries for emm and himem that prevented the right start up. Fixed it and emm works.3.) Already had the *motto hairu* driver set with parameter /di.4.) I downloaded ntfspro and that worked fine. However, still got the memory allocation error. However it should be solved with emm working okay now. Just testing on my other machine.5.) Regarding the Nero issue. I followed again your step by step course at http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/neroexpress6.html.

At some stage I come to this section:---------------------------------------------------------------------

You are now at the 'Select Boot Image' dialog screen. This is where you find out you do not have the option of selecting any boot image file of your choosing. You only have the option of:

---------------------------------------------------------------------Nero 6.6 only grants me the choice from 1 (!) and that is the option for Read boot disc in drive. But it does not matter really. I have all the files on my floppy as well so I can just let it read the floppy and build the bootable cd from that.I guess that it has something to do with an internal check for the bootsector for Dr Dos 7 (which is Caldera). I cannot explain otherwise.